The following are highlights of a new Crave Online interview with Roman
Reigns:
CraveOnline: You’re from the famous Anoa’i wrestling family. What
were family get togethers like? Do you guys just talk wrestling all the time or
is business just business and family time is just family time?
Roman Reigns: It’s a little bit of both. It just depends on who’s there. If
I’m with my dad, yeah, he’s going to talk a good bit about the business. He just
kind of mentors me and tells me what he’s thinking about my stuff. But growing
up and all that, family barbecues, it was all family, man, ya know? You have to
picture it. We always had so many kids in our family, running around the yard,
sweaty little kids jumping in and out of the pool, the front door and back doors
swinging open and shut, all of the parents getting pissed off telling us to stay
outside. Always coolers and coolers of beers and soda and chicken being
barbecued, burgers being barbecued, it was a good time. It brings me back,
actually.
CraveOnline: What is your dream match? If you could face any
wrestler from any era, whom is Roman Reigns taking on?
Roman Reigns: Oh, that’s an easy one. I’d have to go with Taker, man. It’s
such an easy choice. I imagine just about everybody would say that. If you hear
all the stories of him, man, he’s like a godfather or something. You know what I
mean? You hear all of these really cool things about him out in the ring, in the
back, and just with the boys and stuff. He legitimately doesn’t get enough
credit for being a cornerstone of this business. That would be a dream come true
to be in the ring with him.
CraveOnline: Any desire to have a triple threat match with your
former Shield members, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins?
Roman Reigns: Right now, I’m biding my time. I promised Dean that he would
have first crack at Seth. He told me he’d leave a little for me. The main part
for me is Randy Orton has just been a pain in my ass. Even from when, that night
we [The Shield] broke up, that piece of crap, Seth, handed him the chair and he
wore me out with it. So I’m gonna take out Randy just by principle. I’m going to
clean up the outside of the house first. I’m going to do some yard work and then
I’m going to Seth and clean up the house. It’s an ‘in house’ situation.
CraveOnline: What can we expect from your match with Randy Orton
at Summer Slam?
Roman Reigns: A lot of heavy hitting. The plan is to hit hard and more often
and just to tear the house down. You can say a lot about Randy Orton but he’s a
multi-time champion and one hell of a performer. When he’s on; he’s on. When The
Viper is in the ring, you got to be careful cause he can strike. But let him
strike first, I’ll be the one to strike last.
CraveOnline: How much influence do you have in deciding your
wrestling gear?
Roman Reigns: As long as I don’t go crazy, its all me. What I’m wearing for
Summer Slam, I’m pretty excited about. Its kind of the same template of vest.
It’s just a different set up. Probably by Wrestlemania, I’ll debut a whole
different type of vest. It’s really cool to have cool gear.
CraveOnline: Yeah, I’d say you have the coolest gear in the ring.
Its not jean shorts… or underwear.
Roman Reigns: No offense to [John] Cena. To be honest, the cool thing about
Cena is he’s just in his gear all the time. He doesn’t have to get dressed. He
comes off his bus and he’s it. All he has to do is pull up his kneepads. You
know who is kind of a new Cena is Ambrose. Ambrose can show up in his gear like
he just changes his boots. He puts on a different set of combat boots and he’s
ready to go. I always joke with him that he’s the new Cena as far as gear.
CraveOnline: How far in advance are you made aware of a wrestling
angle or the direction creative is taking you?
Roman Reigns: It varies. Due to how brutal our jobs are, you just never know.
If Daniel Bryan doesn’t go down, I may not have the opportunity that I have now.
You just never know when an opportunity is going to change everything and
completely derail what the timeline was. Sometimes you know but you can never
stick to that. You’re only as good as your last performance so you just have to
be on your toes.
CraveOnline: What’s the process you go through before a match to
get amped up?
Roman Reigns: My process is walking down to the locker room, laying
everything out to how I like it. I’m very particular about setting up my bags
and my dressing situation. I love to pull out that portable speaker and blare
music even if nobody else likes it. To me, its just keeping everything the same
every single night.
Check out the complete interview at CraveOnline.com.
